Chasing Cheerios

Friday, May 13, 2011

It's Hammer Time!

*Sorry to the people who commented on this post. Blogger was down for a while. When it came back up, they'd deleted the post, which also deleted the comments.

My dad (who is building his house from scratch...cutting trees that needed to be cleared for the house and turning them into boards to build the house, etc.) cut a few slices of one of his trees for the girls and I this weekend. I have lots of plans for these tree slices, and we started with a fun hammering activity.

We put this large tree slice under in the shade in our front yard along with a couple of hammers and nails. The girls have had a great time hammering nails. (I never let E(1) do this activity unsupervised just in case she decides to eat a nail!) O(4) especially likes to pull nails out after she hammers them. She was pulling so hard one time that she fell backwards off the tree when the nail finally came out!

While this is not an ideal toddler activity (especially when the toddler is super tired), both girls really enjoy it, and I think we'll spend a lot of time hammering this summer. I love that they are learning so many things through this simple activity...hand/eye coordination, determination, persistence, fine motor control, concentration, etc.

This is fabulous. I love those tree rounds and have been longing for some for the longest time. Lucky you! I'm also impressed with your hammering 1-year old. With little ones I've done this with golf tees and dirt, and it works great!

I actually think it is a GREAT activity! If you wanted a "safer" alternative for the littler one, you could use golf pegs in a styrofoam container of some sort. I wouldn't change a thing for the older one though. With proper education and the right tools she is perfectly capable of hammering in a nail. :)

(Okay, maybe I should have read the other two comments who suggested the same thing as me!)

My parents built their house from scratch too, using the trees that they cut from the site. They built a log cabin though, so they didn't make their own boards. Good luck to your dad!Also, that sounds like a great thing for kids to do to practice eye-hand coordination.

Thanks for the comments! I used to have a floral styrofoam and golf tee activity for O...maybe I should get it out for E. Although, golf tees make me a little nervous since she sometimes put things in her mouth. For some reason, they scare me more than real nails.

About Me

Welcome to Chasing Cheerios! I am a mostly stay at home mom (I work 45 days per year as a School Psychologist) of 2 girls and wife to Elliott. "O" is 6 years old, and "E" is 2. We love to do Montessori inspired activities with our girls as well as fun art, science, nature, and cooking projects. I also love to make things with and for my girls. Please contact me with any questions at ChasingCheerios@gmail.com

I put together this activity for O(5) a few months ago to take on vacation. It was super simple to put together. I used sharpie marker ...

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